Sermons in Ecclesiastes

We're getting sermons in Ecclesiastes at church (City Presbyterian Church, Denver) these days.  This is one of my favorite books for the following reasons:

1) It affirms the good things of creation as good--wine, women, wisdom, material wealth, building, careers, learning, etc.
2) It admits that pursuing these good things for their own sakes satisfies the pursuer for only a limited time.
3) It expounds the inner hunger that we all have for a significance that goes deeper than self-indulgence, and for a meaning that lasts beyond death.
4) Its continuing theme of vanity "under the sun" points us to a world that transcends this one as the place to seek that deeper and more lasting satisfaction.
5) It eventually focuses on the (relatively) humble goal of taking satisfaction in good work, loved ones, and faithfulness to God, which
6) leads us to look to Jesus here and now for using well the good gifts we have from God and living within a lasting sense of significance and satisfaction in him.

Knowing the outline does not, of course, make following it easy.  Having a map doesn't smooth out the terrain, but it does help us detect false paths.

"Utterly Empty"?

Dr. Danny Carroll preached at City Presbyterian Church (Denver) today.  He teaches Old Testament at Denver Seminary, and I'm always glad to hear his expositions of Scripture.  Today he preached from Ecclesiastes 1:12-14 and 3:1-15.

Along the way he made the point that the meaninglessness that so harshly oppresses the author is in fact part of the meaning of life.  That is, since God "has also set eternity in the human heart" (3:11), no non-eternal pursuit can fill that spot.  Only God himself can fill it.  Thus this ache at our inability to satisfy that hunger is itself a window on what our lives mean and where we are headed.

I wonder how well the maxim, "The journey is the destination," fits that perspective.